Dublin for Thanksgiving: UA and LH in business
Dec 21, 2012, 5:00 am
#1
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Dublin for Thanksgiving: UA and LH in business
It is common every year for several airlines offer good deals in business class from the US to Europe during the Thanksgiving holidays due to minimum business travel during this time. Having relocated to the US, this would be my first time taking advantage of this deal.
Dublin being one of the two cheaper options with ~$2000 roundtrip tickets in business class from Austin on a combination of United and Lufthansa. The flight routing rules seem to be pretty flexible and allowed for backtracking to the west coast. Yes, it was crazy to flight back west ward but hey, more miles are always good and would help in my UA *G requalification.
I had researched flight options for a couple of weeks and was planning on flying Lufthansa via Frankfurt on the 747-8 on the outbound and A380 from the inbound but did not pull the trigger as I was not sure if I could actually make the trip due to work commitments. The fare was non-refundable and there was a nasty change fee so I had to be 100% sure.
When I did finally wanted to make the purchase, there was no longer availability on the 747-8 flight in the required fare class for my ticket. Dang! They did open up some more seats later but I couldn't change to it unless I wanted to pay the change fee. We'll wait for another time to try the 747-8.
Due to work commitments again, I couldn't take extra days off and have the entire week off. At the end, I settled for a routing AUS-SFO-IAD leaving right after work on Wednesday with a day to explore Washington D.C. before continuing on United and Lufthansa to Brussels and Frankfurt/Dublin respectively. On the trip home, I manage to tagged on a IAH-LAX flight to try the 787 before turning right back to AUS to get me home late on a Sunday just in time for work on Monday.
I waited until pretty late to pull the trigger on the hotels and got lucky thanks for the Hilton sale with close to 40% discount. We opted to stay one night at the Conrad in the city center and another at the Hilton Dublin airport since it was not only way cheaper but we had super early 5.30am flight and I needed the extra stay to try to quality for Hilton Honors Diamond.
As usual, the trip report is available via my blog with trip installments below:
AUS-SFO-IAD
Exploring Washington DC
IAD - BRU - DUB
Conrad Dublin
Hilton Dublin
Exploring Dublin
DUB - FRA - IAH
IAH - LAX on 787 and back home to Austin
Dublin being one of the two cheaper options with ~$2000 roundtrip tickets in business class from Austin on a combination of United and Lufthansa. The flight routing rules seem to be pretty flexible and allowed for backtracking to the west coast. Yes, it was crazy to flight back west ward but hey, more miles are always good and would help in my UA *G requalification.
I had researched flight options for a couple of weeks and was planning on flying Lufthansa via Frankfurt on the 747-8 on the outbound and A380 from the inbound but did not pull the trigger as I was not sure if I could actually make the trip due to work commitments. The fare was non-refundable and there was a nasty change fee so I had to be 100% sure.
When I did finally wanted to make the purchase, there was no longer availability on the 747-8 flight in the required fare class for my ticket. Dang! They did open up some more seats later but I couldn't change to it unless I wanted to pay the change fee. We'll wait for another time to try the 747-8.
Due to work commitments again, I couldn't take extra days off and have the entire week off. At the end, I settled for a routing AUS-SFO-IAD leaving right after work on Wednesday with a day to explore Washington D.C. before continuing on United and Lufthansa to Brussels and Frankfurt/Dublin respectively. On the trip home, I manage to tagged on a IAH-LAX flight to try the 787 before turning right back to AUS to get me home late on a Sunday just in time for work on Monday.
I waited until pretty late to pull the trigger on the hotels and got lucky thanks for the Hilton sale with close to 40% discount. We opted to stay one night at the Conrad in the city center and another at the Hilton Dublin airport since it was not only way cheaper but we had super early 5.30am flight and I needed the extra stay to try to quality for Hilton Honors Diamond.
As usual, the trip report is available via my blog with trip installments below:
AUS-SFO-IAD
Exploring Washington DC
IAD - BRU - DUB
Conrad Dublin
Hilton Dublin
Exploring Dublin
DUB - FRA - IAH
IAH - LAX on 787 and back home to Austin
Last edited by calvinoeh; Dec 23, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Dec 21, 2012, 5:02 am
#2
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AUS-SFO-IAD
The trip didn’t start out on in a good way. I started to feel to sick with a sore throat after lunch at work. Looks like we missed the Thanksgiving crowd with airport was empty when we got there at 6pm. The check-in machines were being cranky and we needed an agent to help us get our boarding passes. The computer started spitting out some weird visa requirements at check-in for Dublin – Visa required except for Malaysian passport holders. Hmm.. how about the rest of the world?
The flight itself was uneventful. I had a beer predeparture thinking it would help with the sore throat. With nothing to do , I slept most of the flight waking in the middle of the flight for some snacks.
We arrived on time in SFO and I was starting to feel peckish. We shared a pretty good chicken soup at one of the food courts that again I was hoping to help with the sore throat.
By the time we got on the plane for our red-eye to IAD, we were pretty tired. I'm pretty good at sleeping up right and slept most of the flight where as Lydia pretty much stayed awake and watched the complimentary directTV in domestic first class.
The flight itself was uneventful. I had a beer predeparture thinking it would help with the sore throat. With nothing to do , I slept most of the flight waking in the middle of the flight for some snacks.
We arrived on time in SFO and I was starting to feel peckish. We shared a pretty good chicken soup at one of the food courts that again I was hoping to help with the sore throat.
By the time we got on the plane for our red-eye to IAD, we were pretty tired. I'm pretty good at sleeping up right and slept most of the flight where as Lydia pretty much stayed awake and watched the complimentary directTV in domestic first class.
Last edited by calvinoeh; Dec 21, 2012 at 5:11 am
Dec 21, 2012, 5:04 am
#3
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Exploring Washington D.C.
On arrival at IAD, we started off the day with a Starbucks latte before taking the shuttle to the National rental car station. National wanted $75 for a one day rental but thankfully we had a free day cert thanks to the "rent 2 free 1 day promo".
We spent the day at “the mall” enjoying the cold weather and various monuments that DC is famous for. We were overly ambitious and wanted to walk the entire area but gave up half way through and just drove the rest of the way.
Hello Mr. Lincoln
Read more..
We spent the day at “the mall” enjoying the cold weather and various monuments that DC is famous for. We were overly ambitious and wanted to walk the entire area but gave up half way through and just drove the rest of the way.
Hello Mr. Lincoln
Read more..
Dec 21, 2012, 5:07 am
#4
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Iad - bru - dub
One of the best thing about flying through IAD is the Lufthansa Senator Lounge. We took a much needed shower before catching up with emails while enjoying some beer, coffee and the tarmac views.
Austrian flight arriving
We moved to the United RCC dump that was closer to our departure gate an hour before departure. It was crowded with nothing interesting to eat or drink. With nothing better to do, we proceeded to the boarding gate with the gate agent got on the PA informing us that there were running into mechanical issues and that it would take at least 30 minutes. She tried comforting us with information that saying that worst case, there was a substitute plane available.
With the delay, we were most probably going to miss out BRU-FRA-DUB connection. We headed back to the United lounge trying again to change to the 747-8 LH flight but was informed that the flight had already closed. We pleaded saying we were going to miss our connection and just had hand luggage and would run over but there was nothing the agent could do. The agent protected us on a direct Aer Lingus BRU-DUB flight.
45 minutes after the scheduled departure, we were informed that boarding. Hooray! We might still be able to make the connection.
We got settled into our seats. Whoever decided on a 2-4-2 configuration in business should be shot. The business class cabin felt cramped and thankfully we had the 2 window seats. I would not want to be in the middle seat. It was pretty interesting first time for us seating in the backward facing seats. Pre-departure, we were served some champagne in some “classy” plastic glasses.
More bad news followed when the captain came on board informing now that we now had some issues with the radio and they were trying to fix it as soon as possible. Some passengers got pretty feisty and started ranting to the pursuer. After another 30 minutes the doors were closed and we thought we were finally on our way or so we thought. A couple of minutes later the doors were re-opened and were left wondering on what next now. A business class passenger got his stuff and at this point, wanted to be offloaded. A flight attendant did convince the passenger to stay at a couple minutes of later, the doors were closed and we were finally on our way.
Read more...
Austrian flight arriving
We moved to the United RCC dump that was closer to our departure gate an hour before departure. It was crowded with nothing interesting to eat or drink. With nothing better to do, we proceeded to the boarding gate with the gate agent got on the PA informing us that there were running into mechanical issues and that it would take at least 30 minutes. She tried comforting us with information that saying that worst case, there was a substitute plane available.
With the delay, we were most probably going to miss out BRU-FRA-DUB connection. We headed back to the United lounge trying again to change to the 747-8 LH flight but was informed that the flight had already closed. We pleaded saying we were going to miss our connection and just had hand luggage and would run over but there was nothing the agent could do. The agent protected us on a direct Aer Lingus BRU-DUB flight.
45 minutes after the scheduled departure, we were informed that boarding. Hooray! We might still be able to make the connection.
We got settled into our seats. Whoever decided on a 2-4-2 configuration in business should be shot. The business class cabin felt cramped and thankfully we had the 2 window seats. I would not want to be in the middle seat. It was pretty interesting first time for us seating in the backward facing seats. Pre-departure, we were served some champagne in some “classy” plastic glasses.
More bad news followed when the captain came on board informing now that we now had some issues with the radio and they were trying to fix it as soon as possible. Some passengers got pretty feisty and started ranting to the pursuer. After another 30 minutes the doors were closed and we thought we were finally on our way or so we thought. A couple of minutes later the doors were re-opened and were left wondering on what next now. A business class passenger got his stuff and at this point, wanted to be offloaded. A flight attendant did convince the passenger to stay at a couple minutes of later, the doors were closed and we were finally on our way.
Read more...
Last edited by calvinoeh; Dec 21, 2012 at 5:17 am
Dec 21, 2012, 5:31 am
#6
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Dec 21, 2012, 12:27 pm
#7
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Tulsa, OK
Programs: AA EXP, UA Silver, SPG Plat, Marriott Plat
Posts: 1,264
Nice start.
There is one error you might correct. This is on your blog..
That should be No lounge to use at Brussels right?
There is one error you might correct. This is on your blog..
With no lounge to use at Dublin, we just killed time at Starbucks. The short 1.5 hour flight to Dublin was uneventful. There was no business class but thankfully we had a 3 seats between the 2 of us
Dec 21, 2012, 12:38 pm
#8
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: LAX
Programs: UA, Bonvoy, Amex Plat
Posts: 1,582
Nice! Good to see a UA J report. I'm flying UA J ORD-HKG-SIN in a few weeks, so it's good to get a sense of what's in store. Cioppino seems like an odd option for a plane, but I guess if it's fresh, it could work. That pork chop looks decent.
Dec 21, 2012, 4:38 pm
#9
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Dec 21, 2012, 6:38 pm
#11
Join Date: May 2011
Location: BKK
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,088
Haha I didn't think the 2-4-2 seat combo was that bad. I sat in one of the middle seats before and it felt just fine. It's not like the person in the middle has to go over two ppl just to go to the bathroom like Window Y.
Dec 22, 2012, 4:45 am
#13
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I missed my flight and was rebooked on Aer Lingus which I have no status on.
Dec 22, 2012, 8:44 pm
#14
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Dec 23, 2012, 1:27 pm
#15
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Conrad Dublin
We splurged the first night at the Conrad since it had the better location than the other Hiltons in Dublin. The Conrad is close by to St Stephen’s Green and a ten minute walk to the shopping and dining Grafton street area.
We were checked in even though we arrived before check in time. Was upgraded to a corner deluxe room. Despite some negative reviews on tripadvisor and flyertalk, we didn’t have any issue with the hotel. It was definitely more upscale than a typical Hilton with marble bath rooms, huge bathtub, excellent toiletries and a nespresso machine in the room.
Read more »
We were checked in even though we arrived before check in time. Was upgraded to a corner deluxe room. Despite some negative reviews on tripadvisor and flyertalk, we didn’t have any issue with the hotel. It was definitely more upscale than a typical Hilton with marble bath rooms, huge bathtub, excellent toiletries and a nespresso machine in the room.
Read more »